1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to sheet material handling and fabricating methods and systems and components of such systems. The sheet material is of the self-shape-sustaining type, such as plastic, wood or metal.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In many industries, particularly the aerospace industry, there is a need for the mechanized production of a relatively few irregularly shaped sheet material parts. For example, only two or three hundred such parts may be needed in a year. Presently, these parts are made by first cutting a templet and then, either by hand or with limited machinery, cutting the shape of the templet in the sheet material. After the part is cut, a considerable amount of manual deburring of the cut edge is required, with still more surface finishing following. The cost of such individual parts is quite high and, since a particular industry may need as many as two or three thousand different shaped parts manufactured in this way, the ultimate cost is considerable.
There is, therefore, a need in the sheet material handling and fabricating industry for an apparatus or method to mechanize the production of a large variety of relatively few parts of sheet material. While the numerically controlled punch press is a useful tool for satisfactorily fabricating holes or the like internally in the part, it is not satisfactory for cutting the peripheral shape of such irregularly shaped parts, and thus cannot fully satisfy the need for full mechanization.
One difficulty of automating apparatus for making parts is that the parts in the punch press have been removed manually such that the positioning of the part in the subsequent automated machine must be repeated along with the additional programming of the machine.